Despite a hearty nine nominations, Birdman only took home one award last night at the 68th British Academy Awards in Central London for Cinematography. The movie was beaten out for Best Film by Richard Linklater’s Boyhood while Michael Keaton was pipped to the post for Leading Actor by Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything.
Before that all went down, Flickering Myth caught up with its producer John Lesher to talk about the movie and Michael Keaton’s connections to Batman.
On getting the production together:
“It was very difficult. I mean, a movie in one take starring Micheal Keaton, a comedy from Alejandro [Iñárritu], all of those things were like, ‘huh, really?’. But with some perseverance and help from many people, we find ourselves standing here tonight and it’s a great feeling.”
On the overwhelming praise for the film:
“It has been a crazy, great response. How could we ever dream of it? But we’re all really proud. We put our hearts and souls into the movie. And… everyone showed up and did a great job”.
On working with Michael Keaton and his connections to Batman:
“We were really worried [about the connections to Batman], but Michael’s a really confident guy and a very grounded guy and he recognised the truth. Which is that this is about all of us. It’s about Alejandro, it’s about any actor, it’s about people finding meaning in their life. And I think he responded to that.
On the other films nominated for BAFTAs:
“I saw Whiplash, which I loved. Lot of drumming. It’s a year of drumming!”
SEE ALSO – And the 68th British Academy Film Awards winners are…
SEE ALSO – BAFTAS 2015: Flickering Myth attends the 2015 EE British Academy Film Awards
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
Originally published February 9, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
